


Playing Dress Up

by theloverofdragons



Series: Awkward Moments [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang is fun to write, F/M, Family, Humour, pairings are minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 19:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6821080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theloverofdragons/pseuds/theloverofdragons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The duty has befallen the Avatar to educate the second Prince of the Fire Nation about his family's lesser known heritage. Namely, their penchant for dressing up during the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing Dress Up

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender. That privilege goes to Bryke and Nickelodeon

"Look Uncle Aang, I'm a samurai!"

Aang barely has time to look up from the old airbending scroll he's reading, when a blur of antique red and black armour crashes into his leg.

"A samurai, are you?" he asks humorously, bending down to remove the helmet from the head of the child within the pile of armour. Two golden eyes blink up at him, surrounded by shaggy black hair which has fallen free of its topknot, and accompanied by a blinding grin.

Aang can't help but smile; there is no doubt that the second oldest Prince of the Fire Nation is the spitting image of his father.

"Yup!" Isao chirps. "Jus' like in the olden days 'fore the uni-fi-ca-tion of the Fire Nation!"

"Those were a very long time ago," Aang notes, still trying to make out Isao's body within the armour. "What prompted this decision?"

"Well, me and Suika was in our lessons with Master Chao, an' he mentioned the samurais. Suika said she remembered Dad showin' us some old armour from like, a thousand thousand years ago, so when we'd done, we went to go see it. Suika didn't really like it, cos she's a girl and she's _boring_ , but I wanted to try some on, so I did, and I was going to find her, or Mum or Dad, and then I found you, Uncle Aang!"

Somehow, Isao was able to say this all in one breath, so Aang's brain is still processing this information a good thirty seconds after Isao has finished.

"Be that as it may," he says eventually, trying for a disapproving tone similar to Katara's, "I don't think your parents would approve of you borrowing antique samurai armour. We should probably put it back."

Isao frowns. "Are you alright, Uncle Aang? Your voice went all funny and growly. D'you have a sore throat or somethin'? Shall I go get Mum?"

Okay, so the disapproving tone needs a _little_ more work.

"No, no, I'm fine," he replies, coughing to cover up. "There! All better! But we'd still better put all this back before your mother catches us with it."

Isao sighs. " _Fiiiiine_. But I was looking forward to scaring some nobles."

Aang has to repress a snicker, knowing that if he in any way indicates to Isao that he likes the idea, he will be hunted down by the entirety of the Fire Nation and Water Tribes, led by Katara.

Speaking of whom… "To put this armour back, we're going to have to be stealthy."

"Like a Kyoshi Warrior? Or Dad when he steals stuff from the kitchen?"

"Yeah, exactly. So do you know where everyone's going to be, so we can avoid them?"

Isao scrunches his forehead in concentration. "Mum and Dad are in the office, going over the ne-go-ti-a-tions for their meetings later, and Uncle Sokka, Aunt Suki and Aunt Toph are sparrin' I think. 'Vryone else should be in lessons or somthin'."

Aang grins, removing a bulk of the samurai armour so Isao can actually move properly, and beginning to make his way in the direction the prince had come from. "Perfect. We should be able to return this undetected."

For the most part, Aang is right and nobody, from servants doing their jobs to wandering nobles, catches them sneaking the armour back. As they're on about to enter the corridor where the antique armour is displayed, Suika passes them on her way to her pipa lessons. She pauses for a moment, taking in the Avatar with his arms laden down in samurai chest armour, and her twin brother with a helmet rammed down on his head and armoured boots about ten sizes too big for his feet, before rolling her eyes in a manner eerily similar to Katara, and continuing on her way.

"See," Isao mutters. "Told you she's _boring_."

Aang snorts, hastily covering it up with a cough, as he catches sight of the stand Isao had acquired the samurai armour from. Unlike its brothers standing straight in the typical military precision of the Fire Nation, this one is lying at an angle on the floor, with everything except the leg guards missing.

At Aang's look, Isao shrugs. "What? I couldn't reach, and not everything could fit?"

The Avatar sighs, leading him over to the stand and pulling it upright. "Fair point. Come on; we'd better put this back quickly before someone suspects something."

Reluctantly, Isao steps out of his boots, and Aang begins working on putting the samurai armour back the way it was, using the other sets around him as a guide.

"Have you ever dressed up, Uncle Aang?"

"Yes actually. Back during the Hundred Year War, I accidentally joined a Fire Nation school as a pupil called Kuzon. Thinking about it, we all had a stint dressing up during the War," Aang paused as Isao cocked his head to one side, and stared at him expectedly. "Why are you looking at me like that? What do you…oh. That's my cue to tell you about it, isn't it?"

* * *

"Well, let's start from the beginning. This was when we first went to Kyoshi Island, and we had only just met Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors. After Sokka and Suki had got off to a…rough start shall we say –"

"I know she kicked his butt, if that's what you mean."

"Heh, yep. Anyway, Sokka tried to reconcile with her, and when I next saw him he'd…made a change in the fashion department."

" _Do I really have to wear this? It feels a little…girly." Sokka's miserable voice floated out from the Warriors' training hall, as Aang passed it. Intrigued, the Avatar stopped to listen._

" _It's a warrior's uniform," Suki replied, sounding highly amused. "You should be proud. The silk threads symbolize the brave blood that flows through our veins. The gold insignia represents the honour of the warrior's heart."_

_Sokka puffed up with pride. "Bravery and honour."_

_Aang couldn't help the grin that spread across his face at the possibilities which ran through his mind, and poked his head round the doorframe. Was Sokka, the 'manliest warrior to ever walk upon the earth', really wearing a…_

" _Hey Sokka! Nice dress!"_

"Later, when we were fighting off the Fire Nation, he kept the dress on, and was actually pretty adept at using a fan. The next dress up incident involved your father, when he saved my butt from Admiral Zhao."

_Aang scowled, tugging on the chains restraining him to the two pillars on either side of him. They held fast. Sighing, he hung his head, glancing up again almost immediately as he heard two dull thuds from outside the door. He stared as the lock clicked, and the door slowly opened._

_A blue and white demon mask covering the face of a figure dressed in black stared back at him, before slowly reaching up to unsheathe a pair of Dao swords. He rushed towards Aang, brandishing the wickedly sharp blades, and the Avatar let out a squawk. However, instead of feeling the metal bite into his skin, the swords shattered the chains restraining him._

" _Who are you? What's going on? Are you here to rescue me?" Aang wondered. The blue masked man (a spirit perhaps?) walked back towards the door, opened it, and made a jerky motion for Aang to follow him. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."_

_As he made his way down the fortress corridor after the Blue Spirit, he suddenly heard a small croaking noise. Poking his head round a door, he saw the previously completely frozen frogs, which had escaped from his shirt earlier, crawling on the floor, only half frozen._

" _My frogs! Come back! And stop thawing out!" Aang was about to make a grab for them, when he felt the Blue Spirit grab the back of his collar and drag him away. "Wait! My friends need to suck on those frogs!"_

"Of course, things didn't go to plan when we were escaping; do they ever? Anyway, your dad as the Blue Spirit and I were about to get pierced by like, a thousand arrows, when your dad had an idea. In retrospect, it would've been better for me if he'd told me about it."

_Aang swallowed heavily as he glanced down at the Dao swords which were crossed over his throat, as Zhao and the Blue Spirit had a stare off. The swords prevented the Yu Yan archers getting a shot at the Avatar which wouldn't result in him getting his throat cut, preventing them from 'capturing him alive'._

Wait…that's not exactly a reassuring thought! _He really hoped his new friend knew what he was doing._

_Evidently, Zhao had realised the same thing. "Open the gates," he ordered through gritted teeth._

_An officer next to him started. "Admiral, what are you doing?!"_

" _Let them out now!" Zhao snapped. The gates creaked open and Aang and the Blue Spirit slowly backed out from Pohuai Stronghold. Once they had a good distance, they turned and ran._

_Aang grinned, moving his head to congratulate his friend…just in time to see an arrow catch the Blue Spirit on the side of his mask. The Avatar watched in horrified slow motion as the Blue Spirit collapsed to the ground, unconscious._

_Reacting on instinct, Aang airbended a large cloud of dust around them. Looking down at the Blue Spirit's motionless figure, he hesitated, seeing the mask was slightly off-kilter. Kneeling down, he slowly removed it, and automatically recoiled at the sight._

_It was Prince Zuko._

_Aang's first reaction was to flee from the teen that had been chasing him and his friends ever since the Southern Water Tribe…but Zuko had saved him from Zhao…and it was against Aang's nature to just willingly abandon someone to their doom._

_What would Monk Gyatso say? What would Kuzon, his friend from the Fire Nation, do?_

_Aang made a decision._

_By the time the Fire Nation soldiers cleared the dust, he knew that they would find no trace of the Avatar, the Blue Spirit, or the banished prince._

"For a while, there was a break in the whole 'dressing up' thing, but that streak was broken when we went to Gaoling for the first time, and encountered Toph as her Earth Rumble alter-ego, the Blind Bandit."

" _She can't really be blind," Katara murmured, as the three of them stared at the tiny girl in green, who was displaying the Earth Rumble championship belt above her head. "It's just part of her character, right?"_

" _I think she is," Aang murmured, noticing the Blind Bandit's misted eyes beneath her bangs of hair._

" _I think she is...GOING DOWN!" Sokka crowed, startling Momo into hiding in the new bag the shopaholic had just bought._

_In the ring, the Boulder frowned slightly as he took in his opponent. "The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young blind girl."_

" _Sounds to me like you're scared, Boulder!" the Blind Bandit taunted, in an unnaturally young voice._

_The Boulder scowled. "The Boulder's over his conflicted feelings, and now he's ready to bury you in a rock-alanche!"_

" _Whenever you're ready, The Pebble!" the Blind Bandit laughed._

 _Aang's eyes widened as he remembered the vision he had had in the swamp, of a flying boar and a young girl with the same laugh as the Blind Bandit._ Could she be…?

" _It's on!" the Boulder growled, charging forwards. As his heel hit the ground, the Blind Bandit made a sweeping movement with her foot. Aang watched in awe as the earth moved beneath the Boulder, whirling him around and forcing him into very painful looking splits._

_Sokka's face fell as the Boulder howled at the skies. "Ooooooh!"_

"After Toph defeated the Boulder, Xin Fu (the master of ceremonies) asked if anyone wanted to challenge the reigning champion, and I said I would. I actually wanted to talk to her, rather than fight her, but, well, it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped."

" _Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?" the Blind Bandit mocked, 'looking' at the Avatar._

" _Oooh," the crowd murmured._

_Aang put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture. "I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk to you."_

_The Blind Bandit scoffed at that, causing a boulder to erupt under Aang's feet and launching him into the air. He landed lightly behind her, causing her to whirl around._

" _Somebody's a little light on his feet!" she mocked. "What's your fighting name: the Fancy Dancer?"_

_As she launched another boulder at him, Aang used his airbending to deflect it, still hoping for a chance to talk to the girl. Instead, he ended up knocking her out of the ring, and earning himself a bag of gold coins and the championship belt._

_That was probably why she wasn't too happy to see him when he, Katara and Sokka landed in her garden, and later on earthbended him into a tree._

"Much later after that, when we were first hiding in the Fire Nation, we came across the village of Jang Hui, which was suffering due to the pollution caused by the munitions factory, and learned about their guardian spirit; the Painted Lady. When we were there, strange things began to happen, so I decided to investigate."

_Aang chased after the fleeing spirit, using his airbending to keep up with her, as they ran up a hill. Maybe she could use her healing powers to help Appa?_

" _Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you," he called. "But my friend's sick and we're on kind of a tight schedule."_

_The spirit didn't appear to hear him, or she ignored him, as she crossed the river. Aang scurried after her, freezing parts of the river as stepping stones, so he could keep up with her, continuing to talk._

" _Wait! But I'm a great bridge between your world and mine! I know Hei Bai! We're close personal friends!"_

_The Painted Lady moved faster, making her way towards the docks. Aang jumped onto a wooden bridge, then onto a roof, still running after her._

_He waved as she glanced up at him. "Heeey!"_

_The pole he ran into came out of nowhere._

"When I finally caught up with her, I confronted her, and got the surprise of my life."

" _My name's Aang," he beamed at the Painted Lady. "I'm the Avatar."_

" _Well, hello Avatar," she responded, sounding slightly awkward. "I wish I could talk, but I am very busy."_

_Aang nodded, understanding her predicament. "Yeah, me too. I hate that." He peered at what he could see of her face behind the veil. "You know, you're really pretty spirit. I don't meet too many spirits, but the ones I do meet, not very attractive." He tried to peer under the hat to gain a better look._

_The Painted Lady giggled nervously. "Thank you, but-"_

" _You seem familiar too," Aang interrupted, not wanting to be rude, but rather because there was something niggling at the back of his mind._

" _A lot of people say that," the Painted Lady responded_

" _No, you really seem familiar," Aang muttered._

_The spirit sighed. "Look, I really should get going." As she turned to leave, a sudden gust of wind wrenched her hat and veil off her head. She gasped, desperately trying to grab it, and accidentally turned._

_Aang's eyes widened as he saw Katara beneath the costume and makeup…although he immediately admitted that it did kinda make sense._

"And finally, back to Sokka. This actually happened before Katara took on the persona of the Painted Lady, but I think it would be nice to come full circle. While I was pretending to be Kuzon at the school, I kinda got in a bit of trouble…so the headmaster asked to see my parents."

_The headmaster peered at the trio sitting in front of him. "Thank you for coming, Mr. and Mrs..."_

" _Fire." Sokka substituted in a fake voice, accompanied with a fake beard and moustache to boot. "Wang Fire. This is my wife, Sapphire."_

_Katara smiled demurely, and nodded politely. "Sapphire Fire. Nice to meet you."_

_Mr. and Mrs ... Fire" the headmaster drawled. "Your son has been enrolled here for two days and he's already causing problems. He's argued with his history teacher, disrupted music class, and roughed up my star pupil."_

_Katara gasped, the picture of the doting mother, while Wang Fire scowled. "My goodness! That doesn't sound like our Kuzon."_

_Headmaster scowled as well. "That's what any mother would say, Ma'am. Nonetheless, you're forewarned; if he acts up one more time, I'll have him sent to reform school- by which I mean the coal mines. Are we clear?"_

_Wang Fire puffed his chest up. "Don't you worry, Mr. Headmaster. I'll straighten this boy out somethin' fierce!" he turns and fixed a frightening glare on Aang. "Young man, as soon as we get home you're gonna get the punishment of a lifetime!"_

_The headmaster smirked. "That's what I like to hear."_

"When we got back to the cave we were hiding in, I knew that I couldn't just abandon my new school friends to the life they were living. Fortunately, I had a fool proof plan."

_Sokka scoffed. "What could you possibly do for a country of depraved little fire monsters?"_

_Aang grinned; he at least knew that this plan was definitely going to work. "I'm gonna throw them," he did a little jig for effect, "a secret dance party!"_

_Wang Fire was highly unimpressed. "Go to your room!"_

"Wang Fire later reappeared as my therapist before the Day of the Black Sun…but the less is said about that, the better."

* * *

"Soooo," Isao grins, as Aang rests the shoulder pads back on the armour stand the prince had acquired them from. "What you're saying is that because Mum and Dad dressed up when they were way older than me, and used it to do things they prob'bly shouldn't, they shouldn't have a problem with me doin' it?"

"Yeah, sure," Aang replies, not really listening as he concentrates on getting the angle of the shoulder pads' intersection with the chest piece just right, and therefore doesn't see a small smirk begin to form on Isao's face.

"Thanks Uncle Aang! Bye!" he chirps, scampering off back down the corridor.

"No problem," Aang replies, turning back to where Isao had been standing. "Hey! Where did…?" his face suddenly pales as what Isao said sinks into his brain. "No! Wait! I didn't mean…ISAO! ISAO COME BACK!"

* * *

If you were to be strolling down the corridors of the Fire Palace that afternoon, and passed the room where the Fire Lady and Water Tribe delegation were involved in their bi-annual post-war discussions, you would have found nothing untoward.

However, were you to pass the meeting room containing the Fire Lord, the Council, and the Earth Kingdom delegation, you would have heard scandalised and terrified cries from the nobility, shrieks from Master Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, and much swearing from the Fire Lord himself.

Should you choose to stick around for the evening, you would have witnessed the sight of Avatar Aang, the saviour of the world, running for his life from masses of water wielded by a highly unimpressed Fire Lady.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, I extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, or left kudos; you always put a smile on a writer's face :)
> 
> About Isao: Zutara's third oldest child, a firebender, has gold eyes and black hair (a carbon copy of Zuko, in effect). Oh, and his name means 'Honour' :3
> 
> About Suika: Isao's younger twin sister, also a firebender, has gold eyes and brown hair, name means 'Water Fire'
> 
> See you in the next one! ;)


End file.
